CITY planners from Dutch port Rotterdam visited Liverpool to view regeneration of the city centre.

CITY planners from Dutch port Rotterdam visited Liverpool to view regeneration of the city centre.

The 50-strong party of urban design experts arrived on Saturday (May 17) and were heading back to Rotterdam today (May 19) after linking up with Liverpool planners and councillors.

Chris Van Langen from the Rotterdam Designers Forum, who organised the trip, said: "The aim of our visit to Liverpool is to see the many interesting planning and design projects that are taking place in the city and hear about the new initiatives.

"We are especially interested in the transformation and regeneration of the city centre and the waterfront."

Jim Gill, chief executive of regeneration agency Liverpool Vision, believes the visit proves the progress that Liverpool has made in recent years.

He said: "A few years ago it would have been inconceivable that a European delegation would be coming here to learn from our experience, but the regeneration of Liverpool is a fact that is now recognised nationally and internationally.

"We set ourselves the aspiration of becoming a premier European city and we are clearly progressing towards that objective."